Group function is one of usual and important functions in instant messaging applications. In practical usage, a user in a group may send a message to a server with which the instant messaging application communicates, and the server forwards the received message to other users in the group. As such, all the users in the group can receive the message sent by that user.
However, in some scenarios, a user may only need to communicate with some users in the group. For example, when a host wants to discuss with several managers about whether to kick some member out of the group, the host may only need to communicate with these managers, rather than all the members in the group. In the conventional technology, the user may request to create a new group which includes the members with whom the user needs to communicate.
However, after the user creates the new group, each member in the new group can invite any user in his or her friends list to join the new group. As a result, the new group may include users who are not in the initial group. Since the new group is created for the purpose of discussing some issues in the initial group, the messages in the new group may be meaningless to some users, and it would be a waste of server resource to forward the messages to such users.